Keep talking about what you love
Was back in my ayahuasca
bag a few weeks ago and here are some notes I jotted down while under the influence…Shaman during his intro:
Icaros songs are Amazonian mantras. The vibrations of plant and mind are bridged together by the Icaros.
Ayahuasca is spiritual GPS.
Everyone has basements. Everyone has gardens. Clean your memories and turn the page.
Practice with self-love, compassion, and forgiveness.
Me during my trip:
Trips like these are how we check the “iPhone Settings” in our mind. Is your battery charged? Do you have enough storage? Do you need to update your apps…or delete some you never use?
Keep talking about what you love.
Religion to us: "I gave you a book of riddles. Go entertain yourselves. You love riddles."
David Bowie in the 70’s was a great teacher in compassion. What he did for Lou and Iggy during that period is astounding. He was the biggest star in the world and instead of merely basking in his own ego, he decided to shine his light on others he respected who needed that nourishment/shine.
How to do alchemy: Antennae up. Listen. Transcribe. Translate. Communicate.
We are all loops looking for hooks. Take your hooks wherever they come. And remember, sometimes hooks are hidden under the bar.
Joe Rogan was onto psychedelics and MMA years before they were popular. He was training for the future all along.
I put my bucket next to my notebook. But I do not vomit. And then it hits me: This notebook is my bucket. Thank you, notebooks. You hold so much for me.
If they wanted you to know, they wouldn’t be whispering.
Make your own percussion instruments. That way, you know what they’re made of and where they’ve been. Actually, that’s why you should make your own lots of things.
Parents: “I can’t sleep, my life is over, and I feel awful constantly. Also, it’s the best thing that ever happened to me. You should definitely do it.” I should? Because it sounds a lot like a cult.
[Reached end of the notebook after writing on only the right-side pages.] Now we just do it again, backwards.
Time just slipped into something real.
Your poem is in the way you keep showing up.
Women: Who are the men you want to see? What is the masculinity you want to see more of/are attracted to? Speak it aloud.
I’ve fallen in love with my notebook. Actually, I realized we’ve always been in love. “It was you all along.” These blank pages just keep coming. What a gift.
If you are going to be sad, at least be Jewish about it.
Short Jews with pens make up all the best heroes: Superman, Don Draper, Jesus, etc.
My greatest teachers were women and plants. They keep showing me things I missed.
Occasionally, a wealthy person will comment they’re jealous of my lifestyle. So maybe, in a way, I’m rich?
The funniest thing to little kids: peek-a-boo. It’s the first thing that makes them laugh. Hide-Show-Hide. It’s a magic formula. And it’s what the universe does to all of us. We’re not alive for so long and then PEEK-A-BOO YOU’RE ALIVE and then you go back to not being alive again. Hide-Show-Hide. What else can you do but laugh at it all?
Why is there so much drama in the world? Because we love drama.
Take success as an invitation to behave ethically and show others what to do when they achieve it. The humility of Leonard Cohen in concert is a great example. The way he thanked his band, the gratitude he showed the audience, etc. He was constantly teaching.
My final gift: We don’t have to talk about this anymore.
Related: The #1 question I get asked about ayahuasca
Another question: “Can you really write while doing it?” At the peak of the experience, no. But as the descent begins, I’m usually able to scribble notes in a way that’s comprehensible to me but looks like hieroglyphics to anyone else. Also, I just learned this about the Greek word hieroglyphics: "Hiero" means "holy" and "glyphics" means "marks" or "writings" - so the word means "holy writings."
Quickies
🎯 Remember when every band was named Wolf or Deer something? That was a fun couple of years. It was like how every Chicago suburb is named Lake Forest Glen Park something.
🎯 Dumbest thing I thought as a kid was that being an artist meant you were good at drawing.
🎯 Artists should draw inspiration from cutting edge technology or primal ancient-isms to make fresh work. The worst thing you can do: Swim in the waters of what's popular now or in the recent past. That path just leads to you being yet another body in a crowded aisle.
🎯 Advice to men who can't get laid yet pay attention to Andrew Tate, Jordan Peterson, and Elon Musk: Try being interested in something that women actually find interesting.
🎯 Maybe right wingers hate drag folks 'cuz they're having so much fun. It's always drag bingo, drag story hour, drag karaoke, etc. What a carefree life! Mix it up and throw in some drag jury duty or drag divorce court. No one would show up to protest drag going-to-the-DMV.
🎯 Good parents ruin you. You grow up thinking people are nice and the world is safe. Then you're dropped into the real world like a domesticated housecat let loose in the jungle and you’re all, “Where is the water bowl? What time is dinner served?” And all the other cats in the jungle go, "Let’s destroy him."
🎯 Crazy that the only people left who DON'T give trigger warnings in schools are active shooters.
🎯 “A man who is 5 feet 6 inches tall needs to earn an additional $175,000 per year to be as desirable as a man who is about 6 feet tall.” No wonder dudes are like “I’m 5 foot 9 AND A HALF.” That half inch is worth $14,583!
🎯 Overrated: working harder. Underrated: working longer. Sometimes it's not about all-nighters and sweating it out but rather just about being patient and giving it some time.
🎯 Wanting to be popular online feels like a mental disorder so it freaks me out whenever anyone who is a therapist, social worker, or works in the wellness industry is on TikTok or whatever tryna rack up Likes/followers. It's like seeing your personal trainer smash a whole bag of 5 Guys fries.
🎯 Not to be a conspiracy theorist but I'm pretty sure Rock, Paper, Scissors is rigged. I mean, c'mon, a rock would totally beat paper in reality.
🎯 How to get more women to care about the WNBA: Change the team name to the Phoenix Mercury in Retrograde.
🎯 Wearing noise cancelling headphones is a great way to get scared to death at least twice a day.
Comedy
😈 I post clips of my standup at Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
😈 Why I hate the tech media, explained in 47secs:
😈 Listen to my new podcast: Kind of a Lot with Matt Ruby.
😈 NYC on March 9: Misguided Meditation with Matt Ruby: Mindful Comedy Show + Open Bar. Discount with code “exhale”…
😈 Recently at my other newsletter “Funny How: Letters to a Young Comedian”…
Todd Barry joking about the south
A great example of how to steer away from hacky stereotypes. "I'm sorry, I know what you're looking for..."10 Good Things from Jerry Seinfeld, Heather Havrilesky, Sebastian Maniscalco, and more
What it takes to be a full-time content creator on YouTube, how to disguise your crowdwork like Patrice O’Neal, tips on writing from John Steinbeck, how…How a set is built: slowly and methodically
Mike Binder on Marc Maron, Roseanne Barr, and why you can’t skip the process
😈 Watch my new special “Substance”…
5-spotted
🗯 Great description of how the Tesla Cybertruck does indeed look like 💩:
It looks like a beard trimmer that plays Phil Collins songs. It looks like it should come free with a Sports Illustrated print subscription in 1987. Maybe it'll look better if you hit ctrl-alt-delete a few times or close WordPerfect in the background. Maybe it's just weird to see it outside of its natural environment, upright on the wall of a public restroom, dispensing paper towels.
🗯 Anthony Bourdain on NYC, dive bars, and depression on No Reservations in 2009:
“Is there any place left in New York where an old guy can have a drink in the afternoon and be a little depressed — or very depressed?” he asked before walking into Sophie’s. “I don’t want no wide screens, high-fiving white guys, no faux-hawks or gel heads or hot chicks with douchebags. I don’t want anything on the jukebox that will distract an old gentleman such as myself from drinking the heart right out of the afternoon if I should choose to do so.”
🗯 What’s the end game of constantly pointing out our differences? Consider this excerpt from “Evil” by Roy Baumeister.
In the history of the world, increased recognition of differences between groups has led more often to conflict and violence than to peaceful cooperation and sharing. America is now making a dangerous gamble on the opposite result.
🗯 Derek Sivers travels just for the people.
When I think back to that month in India, I remember almost nothing but that conversation. Landmarks, food, museums, and events are a blur, but one interesting conversation can linger in the mind forever.
Sometimes we connect with a place, but usually we connect with people. Yet people connect us to a place.
So, learning from my past mistakes, now my main purpose of travel is meeting people. When they offer to take me to the landmarks, I say, “I don’t care what we do. I just came to see you!”
🗯 This Leonard Cohen doc on Netflix offers a lot of interesting context about LC’s life. Crazy that Various Positions – the album with "Hallelujah," "Dance Me to the End of Love," and "If It Be Your Will" – was shelved by his record company in America. I’d say, “Never trust the suits,” but Leonard always wore a suit so I guess it depends.
Thanks for reading.
-Matt
Wikipedia: “Ayahuasca is a South American psychoactive and entheogenic brewed drink traditionally used both socially and as a ceremonial or shamanic spiritual medicine among the indigenous peoples of the Amazon basin, and more recently in Western society.”
Damn dude I feel like I got a contact high just reading these thank u for sharing I loved them. Reminds me of my acid scribbles